AO-yo-yo-L keeps investors guessing

CBS.MarketWatch.com

America Online
aol
shareholders are no strangers to volatility. But Wednesday's intra-day swing was something to behold. The stock dove 11 points in morning trading before bouncing up 16 to end the day with a 5 point gain. Morning comments at the SiliconInvestor AOLboard included nervous ones like these. TLComiskey ..."I'm grinding my teeth here. Biting my nails. Bottom?pulling my hair starts soon."And Gregory Mullineaux ..."I'm glad I sold my dead weight at the open. The party is over with!"

Those who bailed out early missed the big gain, and those who stuck it out were more concerned about the volatility than they were happy with the positive finish to the day. Rocketman ..."I didn't even look at it today except for this morning when we had that great blow-off bottom. So a 16 point swing and we end up over 5, eh?LOL. Fundamentals didn't change a bit today for AOL so every bit of the price action was based on fear, uncertainty and doubt, plus a bit of greed. If it had gone down to the 90's I would have backed up the truck to load up some more. When you are long, days like these are pure entertainment."Dennis J Baltz ..."Too early to tell if it's a rally. Based on today's activity, it looks like a duck but we'll see if it can quack like a duck tomorrow." Junior Balloon ..."I don't think this is a real rally. It is a nervous reaction to a nervous overreaction.

One last comment that puts the recent sell off in Internet stocks in perspective from Ed Forrest ..."A week ago, AOLat 117 would have been considered terrible. Today it's great. Perception vs. reality."

DLJDirect-hit

Donaldson Lufkin &Jenrette's
dlj
online brokerage unit DLJDirect
"
was a qualified hit in its first day of trading. Its 50 percent gain was, in all reality, a very nice pop. But a 50 percent gain just isn't enough to get IPO chasers all that excited anymore. At the RagingBull DLJDirect message board, JIMSHEA wrote ..."Not bad for one day. 50%. And more to come." And from kc2dpt ..."Well, it's not doubling. But I'll take it."

There were plenty of posters who sounded like they like the company as much as the stock and were pleased with the price they got. MALASKAS11 ..."DIRis a steal at these prices. I got in at 27 and plan to hold for the long term. There are not too many opportunities like this for us small investors. We just happened to get lucky because of market conditions." mikenagy! ..."I bought in at 26 3/4 and I agree this is a great value for DLJDirect. This is one of the largest online brokerages and as far as revenue from the IPOs wewwwww!" And a sign of growing caution on the part of investors from rodeo79 ..."In at 28 with about half the money I want to invest in this company. This market has been too wacky lately for me to put in the full amount."

E*Trade Too.....

E*Trade [s:egrp] stock failed to catch the coat tails of DLJDirect. Although it was heavily traded, ranking number 7 on the most actives list, E*Trade ended the day down a fraction. At ClearStation's EGRPmessage board, posters were debating the "long and the short" of it. QQQQ ..."The brokerage and 'Net scare is over and the buyers are coming back in. EGRPwill go higher from here. This is an excellent entry point." sp2ig ..."Maybe enough people have come out negative, enough people have shorted, it's fallen enough for strong Internet related companies to increase in price. I'm in with a tight stop. Like the action today. People are making a noble effort at 'catching the knife'. I'm with 'em - with tight money management practices in case the knife slashes through."And from jimdel73160 ..."I closed my position early Tuesday and will pick it up again at what I believe will be a much lower price. The three major online brokerages are at or below their 50 day and will most likely keep falling this week. This is a bad sign. We have a bear market in the Internets."

Juno who?

Those who placed a bet on Juno Online
jweb
would have been happy with a 5 percent gain, let alone DLJDirect's 50 percent first day pop. Juno was one of the few recent Internet IPOs to close under its initial price. That was a wake-up call for some of the posters at SiliconInvestor's JWEBboard. SJS ..."I got it from a reliable source that this IPO would be up 2 to 5 points on the open. Things have to be pretty bad for this to open, and then go down right away. Many people have already forgotten last August-October. We need a reality check. While down, it's not that bad and this is ALLa result of the lousy market. They should have caucused with their underwriters and decided to hold it, waiting for the timing to improve."freeus ..."I agree...that Juno should have waited to IPO as this is a horrible market in which to emerge."

The Juno drop did get at least one trader to decide enough is enough for now. Although many would argue with the reason for waiting. Dev Malladi ..."I will stop the IPO stuff for now. Will wait if the Tulip Mania comes back again to get back into the lottery."

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